Dev
Dev was given to 126 boys in 2025, #1,427 among boys’ names; 3,146 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,100 Americans named Dev and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 7 and 21.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Dev by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Dev mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Dev is “a male given name from Hindi.”
Also “a diminutive of the male given name Devdas.”
Borrowed from Hindi देव (dev).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Dev?
#1,427 among boys’ names, 2025
Dev rose from #1,541 in 2015 to #1,427 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 55.3 to 73.8 per million.
145 babies in 2009, the peak
Dev peaked in 2009, when 145 boys were given it, #1,235 among boys’ names. The 126 births of 2025 are 87% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 126 | #1,427 | 73.8 |
| 2024 | 134 | #1,398 | 77.8 |
| 2023 | 110 | #1,581 | 64.3 |
| 2022 | 111 | #1,592 | 63.6 |
| 2021 | 111 | #1,567 | 63.4 |
| 2020 | 98 | #1,638 | 56.8 |
| 2019 | 114 | #1,499 | 63.5 |
| 2018 | 117 | #1,482 | 64.4 |
| 2017 | 134 | #1,336 | 72.4 |
| 2016 | 121 | #1,434 | 63.8 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 106 | #1,541 | 55.3 |
| 2014 | 113 | #1,447 | 58.8 |
| 2013 | 114 | #1,449 | 60.3 |
| 2012 | 119 | #1,399 | 62.7 |
| 2011 | 136 | #1,265 | 71.6 |
| 2010 | 114 | #1,450 | 59.4 |
| 2009 | 145 | #1,235 | 73.1 |
| 2008 | 107 | #1,519 | 52.4 |
| 2007 | 104 | #1,518 | 50.1 |
| 2006 | 111 | #1,413 | 54.0 |
| 2005 | 101 | #1,453 | 50.6 |
| 2004 | 117 | #1,280 | 58.9 |
| 2003 | 111 | #1,278 | 56.2 |
| 2002 | 66 | #1,745 | 34.0 |
| 2001 | 72 | #1,629 | 37.1 |
| 2000 | 41 | #2,341 | 20.9 |
| 1999 | 22 | #3,501 | 11.5 |
| 1998 | 21 | #3,519 | 11.0 |
| 1997 | 14 | #4,502 | 7.4 |
| 1996 | 12 | #4,955 | 6.3 |
| 1995 | 10 | #5,593 | 5.3 |
| 1994 | 14 | #4,360 | 7.2 |
| 1992 | 18 | #3,482 | 9.0 |
| 1991 | 20 | #3,134 | 9.9 |
| 1990 | 16 | #3,640 | 7.8 |
| 1989 | 8 | #5,767 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 12 | #3,964 | 6.3 |
| 1987 | 7 | #5,638 | 3.7 |
| 1986 | 8 | #4,973 | 4.3 |
| 1984 | 13 | #3,318 | 7.2 |
| 1983 | 9 | #4,224 | 5.0 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,159 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 11 | #3,663 | 6.1 |
| 1980 | 10 | #3,914 | 5.6 |
| 1979 | 12 | #3,407 | 7.0 |
| 1978 | 9 | #3,940 | 5.5 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,719 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 8 | #4,101 | 5.1 |
| 1974 | 6 | #4,768 | 3.8 |
| 1971 | 8 | #3,743 | 4.5 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,368 | 3.2 |
| 1969 | 5 | #4,551 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Dev a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Dev has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 52 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Dev: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Dev, and how old are they?
3,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,146 Americans ever recorded as Dev. The median Dev alive today is 14 years old; half are between 7 and 21.
The 2020 Census counted 3,494 people named Dev (129 women and girls, 3,365 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,450 born in the U.S. The Census count is 43% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Dev rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 64 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 157 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,380 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,500 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Dev born?
The states with the most babies named Dev are California, Texas and New Jersey, with 51% of its births recorded by state in 2025; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 20 | #1,047 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 15 | #1,311 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 14 | #528 | 4.5× |
| Washington | 8 | #748 | 0.2× |
| Massachusetts | 7 | #638 | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,164 | 1.4× |
| Georgia | 6 | #1,251 | 1.2× |
| New York | 5 | #1,827 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 5 | #1,902 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,319 | 0.6× |
Where Dev is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Dev is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1969 it was given 4.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Dev with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Dev
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Dev and names like it
- Compare Dev and JohanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sDev peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Dev since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Dev.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Dev alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with DMost given first.